July 18, 2008

Talking with Tanna Frederick

Tanna Frederick left Iowa for Hollywood, but she often looks back. Raised in a creative environment where parents encouraged their children to explore their imaginations, Tanna grew up with a strong artistic sense and a lot of confidence on camera. By the ripe age of 6, Tanna was sure she wanted to be a serious actress.

But first, Tanna became a serious student: she graduated from The University of Iowa with honors in both Political Science and Theater Arts. Tanna was valedictorian of her liberal arts graduating class and president of Phi Beta Kappa. Despite her academic success, Tanna was still convinced that Hollywood was where her dreams would be made—though payoff took patience. “It was very shocking to come out here, having two degrees and not even needing to use them at all. And not even being able to use them to get a waitressing job or a bartending job let alone an acting job. It was a really tough road for a good four or five years,” she explains.

Despite constantly hearing, “How old are you? What’s your bust size? What are your measurements? You should color your hair blond,” Tanna says she found her social niche and overcame the limitations of Hollywood’s standards. Meeting playwright and filmmaker Henry Jaglom was an important event for Frederick, as it changed her experience in Hollywood completely: “All of a sudden I was confronted with a filmmaker who doesn’t follow the rules and doesn’t conform and makes amazing, breathtaking, heart-wrenching films,” she explains. “And I felt for the first time really confident in myself and really confident in my work. I thought, ‘if this great director is doing this, then surely I can make a place for myself.’”

Although Jaglom had never seen Tanna act, he was immediately drawn to her ‘quirky’ style and personality. Shortly after they met, Jaglom asked Tanna to star in a stage production of his 1971 film, “A Safe Place.” From there, the relationship blossomed. Tanna has since become the recurrent leading lady in several of Jaglom’s projects, including “Hollywood Dreams” and the upcoming “Irene in Time.”

Tanna’s roots in Iowa are very much part of her success in Los Angeles. “Now that I’ve found my niche of people, I realize how important it was for me to come from a large family and such a strong community. I think because I come from good stock I’ve found good stock,” she says. To pay homage to her home state, Tanna established the Iowa Independent Film Festival in 2007. One of Tanna’s favorite parts of bringing Hollywood to rural Iowa was “seeing Karen Black walking through the cow fields in her Manolo Blahniks.”